Imperius
by She Who Loves Books
Summary: What if Hermione was irked just enough to where she, a sanctomnoius rule follower, was twisted enough to break the law. A battle of wills with Draco Malfoy and they find themselves falling in love.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One:

She was sick of it. Absolutely sick of it. She had been dealing with Malfoys insults for four years now and she just couldn't take it anymore. He was constantly there insulting her with his smirk and his cry of mudblood, and just every other thing he did. If it didn't stop she knew she would explode. And when she did, oh, they wouldn't just expel her, they would probably put her in Azkaban. _The problem is, _thought Hermione, _there was no way to do it quietly._ She hadn't any idea of any of his secrets and didn't have the means to find out so blackmail was out. _Come on Hermione, think! They are calling you the brightest witch of the age and you can't think of a way to shut up that stupid git, Malfoy? You're better than that. You can do _anything.

It was true too. Hermione genuinely believed that anything could be achieved if one tried hard enough. As long as it might take she knew it could be done.

However, it didn't take very long at all. Less than a month later she got her answer. Or at least an idea at any rate. And she could very well be put in Azkaban for it, but there was very little chance of her being caught this way. It had been utter rapture to find such an easy solution.

_Professor Moody's magical eye swiveled about manically, not resting on anyone in particular, but Hermione had the feeling it was taking in everything. As creepy as the eye was she brought her attention back to what Moody was saying to the class. _"So . . . do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?"

_Hermione raised her hand, and so, to her surprise did, Ron. She found this odd because Ron rarely made to participate in class and when he did he usually didn't know anything about what they were studying. At last Moody's bulbous blue eye stopped it's sickening spiral and rested on Ron. It didn't seem to help his confidence any. Still he said, sounding somewhat hesitant,_ "Er, my dad told me about one. . . . Is it called the Imperius Curse, or something?"

_Hermione was surprised, and even a little proud, that was one of the three Unforgivable Curses._ _Moody went on to say, _"Ah, yes. Your Father _would _know that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse.

_Moody got to his feet and took jar out of one of the desk drawers. He placed it on the table. Inside Hermione could see several large grotesque spiders. She couldn't tell how many as they were all tangled together but she had a nasty suspicion there were three. One for each curse, this naturally gave her the idea that…_

_Even as she thought that he took one of the spiders out of the jar and waved his wand at it, muttering, _"Imperio." _It was good that she always sat near the front of her room or she would have missed the incantation. As it was she heard it perfectly._

She spent the rest of the class thinking of the implications of this new knowledge. She didn't even mind when, as she walked into the corridor, Malfoy called her mudblood. She kept her dreamy smile on her face because she knew he wouldn't for much longer.

* * *

Even though she knew she was a near expert at it she wanted to try one more time before trying it on Malfoy because if something went wrong she knew it would go very badly for her. She checked the whole of the girls dormitory to make sure everyone was at lunch before she pulled the rat she had "borrowed" from the transfiguration department out of her pocket and set it on her neatly made bed. The moment she released it, it made to run off but before it got anywhere Hermione had her wand out and aim. With a near silent cry of, "Imperio!" she waved her wand and the rat stopped. With its pause came the weird tickling sensation in her brain that Hermione had come to associate with her mind controlling another's. She sent a command thought, as she thought of them, at the rat. Almost instantly the rat was running figure eights on her bed. Another command thought had it propelling itself forward with its tail. One last thought sent it into the cage under her bed where she kept the rats before putting them back.

She grinned delightedly, though it could easily have been mistaken for evil had anyone else been in the room with her to see it. _It's time for Mr. Malfoy to get what he's had coming to him for a longtime, and boy, did she have lots planned._

**Please Review Guys If I Think No One Likes It I won't Bother Writing It**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two:

As she walked into the Great Hall she saw a few people look up at her but no one of interest. She took her usual seat next to Harry, and had to keep from grinning because it gave her a beautiful view of the Slytherin table. Not so much a view of Malfoy but nonetheless she knew where he sat anyway.

She had it all mapped out. She was going to get up from the table fast and linger by the entrance until Malfoy walked by. She had her wand in her sleeve and was ready to slide it out into her hand, though it did leave her arm very awkward to move.

"Hermione? _Hermione!"_

Hermione snapped out of her reverie. "I'm sorry Harry, what?"

He looked at her suspiciously, he had never known Hermione to daydream or space-out before. "I was asking you why were you late. Where were you?"

She knew the perfect answer, "I was in the library, researching cases of house elf abuse."

He lost the suspicious expression. No doubt he thought she was dreaming about a world full of free elves treated as equals to wizards. As nice as that would be her current daydream was much closer to success and probably would make her happier in the long run.

Lunch was uneventful. In effort to appear normal she spent a good part of lunch trying to bugger people into joining S.P.E.W. She failed miserably, not that she made much of an effort.

When the golden plates cleared and the majority of the great hall was preparing to return to class Hermione practically ran to the entrance way by the arch. Her heart was racing and it was hard for her to keep the excitement off her face. She leaned against the doorway and hoped that anyone who noticed would think she was waiting for Harry and Ron. She had her wand in her hand, but kept it hidden in the folds in her robes. As the Slytherin table was nearest, the first people to walk by her were clad in green and silver in addition to the standard black. She looked anxiously for the white blond hair peeping over the tops of the crowd.

_THERE!_

She spotted him, his bright hair had indeed given him away. She brought up her wand arm.

"I-imperio!" she stuttered. _Shit! _Malfoy twitched and looked around suspiciously.

She quickly repaired her error before he could get away. "Imperio!" she whispered confidently.

**Sorry 'bout the length, I promise a longer one next chapter!**!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three:

It was like nothing she had ever felt before. His mind was far more complex than the rats and sang of something far darker. She could barely focus to see but she could see Draco standing stock still in the middle of the crowd. There were several nervous looking Slytherins prodding his back. She quickly told him to keep going as normal. She had to push far harder to get him to comply, his mind was far more complex than that of the rats. Still he kept going. She felt what was going on around both him and herself and her brilliant mind felt so confused. She could feel Harry beside her and started walking. In order to avoid having to talk to anyone she went straight to her dormitory. She climbed into her bed, not even bothering to change out of her day robes, and closed her eyes.

She put herself in Malfoys head.

It was like nothing she had ever felt before. The tingling in her brain had become a wall of emotions and thoughts. Seeing as rats don't really feel much Hermione had had no reason to know that so it was an utter surprise. First she had Draco follow suit of her decision and under her command he shut his door, took off his shoes and outer cloak and got into the neatly made bed. He closed his eyes.

She began to explore. She looked at how he had enjoyed yelling at a first year who had cut in front of him this morning. How his steak during lunch had been far overcooked for his tastes.

She went in deeper, slicing through his mind like the proverbial hot knife through butter. Then, to her surprise, she found herself. It was a shock to see herself as other people saw her, bushy haired and back arched in an effort to hold all of her books. She saw how he felt about her. Memories of him calling her mudblood repeatedly, his sneer as he tripped her in the corridor, all of his memories of his being cruel to her. But under all that, deeper still was . . . something else. Some kind of respect for her. And awe, he was impressed with her magical ability and intelligence. Too bad her blood status overrode all that as far as he was concerned.

She certainly was not going to let any of Draco the-pompous-git Malfoys feelings change her mind about her plans though. She had far too much riding on this revenge to turn back now.

_Enjoying yourself, are you?_

Hermione near lost control, she was so startled, _Malfoy?_ She thought tentatively. No answer. She decided to try digging deeper. Draco Malfoys deepest thoughts and most personal memories flashed before her, hers for the taking. Draco's first wand, Draco's first owl, Draco's first broom. Then darker, the first time Lucius beat Draco. The first time his mother slapped him. The first time -

_Stop! _Again Draco Malfoys voice rang in her head, though this time in anguish. As if that he relieved those memories each time she viewed them. But that was impossible, wasn't it. Everything she had managed to look up on the Imperius Curse, which wasn't much given that Harry and Ron might have found it a _teensy_ bit suspicious if there goody-goody best friend, near sister of the Boy Who Lived, looking up side effects of one of the Unforgivable Curses. Still, in what she had read, the bodies mind was supposed to be completely dormant for as long as the spell was in effect. "As empty as a puppet," one book had chillingly stated. And yet, it appeared as though Draco Malfoy was talking to her form inside his head. They were both inside his head.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four:

_Malfoy? _She tried again. This time she got an answer.

_Yes? _How was it possible for him to sneer at her, while inside his head, and she was controlling his body? Hermione sighed inwardly to herself,_ I guess no matter what you do there are something that are just too far out of your control_, she mused.

It felt weird in her head. Like when she was thinking her own thoughts but what Malfoy said next was something Hermione would never have thought.

_Well, dear mudblood, it appears that you have somehow managed to gain control of me. Frankly, im surprised you were dark enough for this, I had you pegged a the type that would cry when she even heard about rule breaking. This is actually quite impressive, _if Hermione thought she was receiving some sort of twisted compliment though, Malfoy quickly rectified that, _for a mudblood anyway. You should know that had I known what you were about to do I could easily have fought back. Father has trained me in dealing with the unforgivable curses. _At this a quick image of a blond haired boy, no more than seven, writhing on the floor, screaming. It was gone as quickly as it had come but Hermione knew that that little boy had been Draco.

It surprised her that anyone could be calm rational, and sarcastic, when having been taken over body and, nearly, mind. _But I suppose being the son of a Death Eater meant you learned to live with some pretty strange and twisted things._

_Well Draco, _Hermione "said" this time to him_, this has been fun, really. But I didn't do this so we could have a little mental heart to heart. Now, _Go to sleep, and don't wake up until I give you permission.

It felt good to feel his mental facilities shut down on her command it felt good to know that she had the most easily powerful 4th year under her complete control. She had Draco Malfoy in the palm of her hand.

She ignored him every time he tried to make mental contact again.

* * *

"Ah," Hermione sighed as she brushed through the tangled bush piled atop her head. The other girls in the lavatory were giving her strange looks, but she didn't care. With one last tug through her now semi-tamed hair she set the brush down.

Now that she was ready she supposed it was time to get Draco up. _Hmm, _thought Hermione, _it's funny how a few hours a day in someone's mind makes you go from calling them slimy gits, to politely referring to them by their first name._ She smiled and prepared herself for the familiar tingling sensation that would begin when she woke up Draco and his thoughts came back.

It had been two weeks since she had placed the spell on Malfoy and had developed a rhythm, a morning ritual, as to how to keep track of both their lives. She knew that Death Eaters simply gave basic commands and then told them to act as they usually would, without telling anyone. Hermione, however, did not want to relinquish any control and so had to be completely focused at all times.

She gently pushed herself into his head. She was still asleep, just as she had said, and she was ready to wake him up. _Hmm, _mused Hermione,_ these are probably the best few weeks of sleep he has ever had._ She used her mental "finger" and began to prod at his consciousness. _Draco, _she whispered in his mind, _Draco it's time to wake up!_

Things started to "move" in his head and she was satisfied he was waking up.

After she had gotten him dressed_ ew!_ And down to the Great Hall for breakfast, she prepared herself for the days soon-to-be events. It was going to be hilarious.

She sat down in her usual seat facing the Slytherin table. She opened up her mental link with Draco and, with as much force as she could muster, ordered _You are to stand up and formally apologize to every girl you have ever had romantic or sexual inclinations with, as well as explaining why you are sorry, the reason your "affairs" ended, and are to speak loud enough so that the whole of the Great Hall can hear you. Begin in exactly five minutes time. _

She felt a little mental twitch which she took as confirmation of her orders. She had worded it all last night so that he couldn't make a mockery of it, or reveal that it had been under her orders in anyway.

She turned to face Ron and Harry and made an effort to get herself involved in their conversation. It wouldn't do to have her sit there and stare expectantly at the Slytherin table. That, too, might be considered a little bit suspicious.

Still when she saw Malfoy get up out of the corner of her eye, she couldn't help but grin. He slowly, almost reluctantly began his way towards the Ravenclaw table.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

Nobody noticed him until he was standing behind what she could only presume to be his first "conquest" at Hogwarts. _Hmm, who would have ever thought that the first girl he dated would be a non-Slytherin. Not even a pureblood by the looks of her either._ She looked at Harry, who hadn't noticed anything yet. She waited until she heard Draco start to speak before she looked away.

"HARRIET TURNBUTTLE. I APOLOGIZE FOR KISSING YOU IN THE THIRD FLOOR BROOM CLOSET AND THEN CALLING YOU A FILTHY HALFBLOOD. I ENDED OUR RELATIONSHIP BECAUSE YOU WERENT PURE ENOUGH FOR ME. IM SORRY. IF YOU WOULD CONSENT TO HUG ME IN FRIENDSHIP I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE IT." And then, without waiting for an answer he swooped down and hugged her from behind. The poor girl looked positively shocked and let him hug her for about eight seconds before he moved on. _Hmm, I wonder where the hug part came from. I certainly didn't tell him to do _that. He was headed back towards the Slytherin table now, towards a short brunette with piercing blue eyes, who was looking at him with a don't-you-dare expression on her face. By this time the entire Great Hall had stopped eating and had their eyes on Draco Malfoy. It was still completely silent as everyone was still too shocked to say anything. Ms. Don't-you-dare was looking far less haughty and a lot more scared. _I don't blame you, _thought Hermione, _this is a Draco Malfoy no one has _ever _seen before._

He went to stand behind her, and she paled and turned around to face him. The boy to her right looked like he might punch Draco if he even tried it. _But of course he can't help it, still maybe 'a little less loud and a little nicer from now on'. _She sent the last part as a command because she honestly didn't want anyone getting hurt over this either. _Oh and no more hugs, _she also sent.

This time he began speaking, far quieter though still loud enough for the entire Great Hall to hear, even if they hadn't been so quiet. To this girl he said, "Serielle, I am sorry for cheating on you two weeks into our three week relationship. I'm sorry that I didn't break up with you honestly before moving on."

The poor girl, _Serille was it?_, looked about ready to cry and instead of punching Draco, the boy next to her focused on soothing his shaking girlfriend. Draco moved on to the next girl, and the next girl. Most of the excuses were the same, "I'm sorry for cheating on you," "I'm sorry I insulted your blood status," "I'm sorry for kissing you then never talking to you again." There were some that were quite different, and funny, too however; "I'm sorry I bit your lip so hard it bled," "I'm sorry I peed in your bed," "I'm sorry you weren't attractive enough to make me cum." That last one had Hermione laughing silently for minutes, it wasn't that it was funny as much as the way he said it, with no emotion, passion, or feeling in his voice. Everyone else still seemed much too shocked to say anything, however. After finishing with Hephzibah Gothwak, "I'm sorry I called you ugly after we kissed in the closet." He went back to the Slytherin table and sat back down. A few of the Slytherin's scooched down the benches in an effort to get away from him.

_Who would have thought he had 'dated' so many people, _thought Hermione. Thankfully there had been no one from Gryffindor and only one girl from Hufflepuff, but still that left two houses and he had apologized to at least 200 girls. _And only a third of them had seemed to be from our year too,_ she thought with slight shock. It wasn't odd to date out of year but she was pretty sure that some of those students were second years for goodness sake!

Draco Malfoy had calmly resumed eating his lunch and the Great Hall finally burst into sound. She turned towards Harry to see his reaction and saw that he looked angry. "How dare he embarrass all those witches!" He exclaimed. "I even feel sorry for the ones from Slytherin with the way he acted." This was _not_ the reaction she had expected. "Chill out harry," laughed Ron who seemed to be seeing the comedy in the situation. That was how she had expected them to react, that they would think it was funny. It had only been meant to discredit him, she had never thought about how the witches might feel. And looking around the Great Hall, Hermione could see not all of them were responding very well. She saw groups of girls trying to comfort the one who had been "apologized" to. Others of course simply took it in their stride, and brushed it off. Some of them were laughing now, she could see. She did hear whispers about Malfoy going around, however, and was grateful that part of her plan had went as planned anyway. She activated the connection between her and Draco's mind, giving him the chance to speak, but for once he was silent. _Well, _thought Hermione, _I have finally rendered the great Draco Malfoy, the boy with a comeback for everything, silent. _She felt little victory in that though. All in all Hermione guessed she was just too nice to enjoy the havoc she had just wreaked upon his life.

People were shocked. Draco Malfoy had never been this quiet or well behaved in the history of Hogwarts! And nobody had been on the receiving end of one of his signature pureblood sneers in over a month. If they didn't know better, they would say he wasn't even the real Malfoy at all! _And they would be right_, thought Hermione, _he really isn't the real Malfoy with me controlling him._ Though her overall plan in the Great Hall had worked, he was somewhat discredited at least, she didn't want to cause another fiasco with other people's feelings. _Although they did get over it pretty quickly, _mused Hermione. _Or maybe they're just good at hiding it._ That was easily possible, too. Hermione had never been girly enough to be able to hide her feelings. Sometimes, she felt inadequate about her looks, but she would convince herself that if she ever fell in love, she wouldn't want the other person to fall in love with her looks, but instead with her mind. _And that's the way it should be. You should love a person with your heart not your eyes._ Of course, Hermione didn't understand that she wanted love with the brain, not the heart. She didn't understand that love happens.

**Hey, thanks everyone who reviewed. so i had this idea that i would try and put the screen names of everyone who reviewed into my story. review -wink wink- and tell me what you think.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry it took so long! Review!**

Chapter Six:

For the past few weeks she had kept everything quiet, after the Great Hall fiasco. She had really used that as a tester of her power over Malfoy, although she had wanted to discredit him. Of course she had a much bigger way of doing this in store, now. And she knew it would get that stupid Parkinson bitch and the other girls off her back about her romantic inclinations. She still didn't know how to tell Harry and Ron, or any of the rest of the Gryffindors, but she couldn't put it off any longer, and she was sure she'd be able to think of something for an explanation. She was scared to put it into action though, Draco Malfoy repulsed her but like any other girl, she had to admit that he was quite good looking. Hermione was afraid that she would begin to grow and harbor some sort of dark fascination, or attraction for him, and that she would use her advantage, _to _her advantage. Still, confidence was key, to pulling this off. Like everything Hermione did, she had planned it out first, _hopefully,_ she prayed, _better than the Great Hall experiment. _She walked into Potions and tried to keep her expression normal, and to keep from glancing over at the blond headed Quidditch player, she had seated in his usual spot.

Snape began his lecture and Hermione tried to look attentitive. "The properties of Mythogen plants are?" he looked around, "Anybody?" His eyes latched onto Hermione. "Ms. Granger," he said evilly. "You show none of your usual fervor when asked a question, could it be that we have finally found a question you cannot answer?" Hermione tonelessly listed off the properties of Mythogen blossoms. When she was done Snape snidely stated, "Ms. Granger, I asked if you _could_ answer, not if you _would_ answer. Fifteen points from Gryffindor!" The Gryffindor's looked outraged at Snape. In any other _fair_ class they would have glared at the person who lost the points, but everyone knew that Snape was not a fair teacher. He'd happily take points from any other house, for no reason but never_ ever _take points from his own, no matter what they did. Hermione had an idea, though. She wanted to make him try. _Draco, _she said loudly in his head, _call Snape a bigoted half blood with a gay boy complex._ She smirked and had to keep from laughing out loud when Draco said loudly to his friend, "You know, Professor Snape is really just a bigoted half blood with a gay boy comlex." Snape turned around and looked at Draco with absolutlry no expression on his face. _Keep going,_ with a little twitch of her wand arm to enforce the command. "He isnt really a pureblood, hes just a pureblood wannabe," said Draco in that same coversational tone. His friend was looking increasingly scared at the expression on Snape's face, which seemed to be losing its realness, until he looked like a statue of Snape. "Mr. Malfoy," he said calmly. "If you would please join me in my office after class." _He didn't take points, _thought Hermione, dejectedly, _not even after all that. _Something was getting in the way of her thought process, though. It was Draco. _What do you want Malfoy, _she internally sighed, allowing him to make contact. _Do you know what you've done! _Screamed Draco in her head, making her wince. _Oh relax, Malfoy., it is _not_ that big of a deal. He didn't even take points. _She thought he was making a big deal out of nothing. _He called me into his office! Do you know what that means?_

_That hes going to sit you down and have a discussion about respect with you?_

_Please, that's what the other teachers do, and that's what he does for students in other houses. Slytherins get tortured!_

_Please, Malfoy. Don't exxagerate. Its unbecoming._

_Oh yeah, well for the first time, im glad of this connection. You're going to have to feel it too._

_Enough Malfoy._ She closed the connection. She could feel Malfoy fighting to reconnect the mental contact between them, but over the past few weeks Hermione had become rather good at keeping her control. _He forgets I'm the one holding the reins, _she thought maliciously, which was out of character for her; she didn't care though, she was happy. It was as though she was sucking all the joy out of Draco into herself, and she didn't care at all.

She left for lunch after Potions. Taking her usual seat next to Ron and across from Harry, she looked expectantly down at the golden plate's. When at last they filled themselves with food, she took some roast chicken and macaroni and cheese, meanwhile Ron had started up a conversation with Harry. And to her surprise it wasn't about Quidditch. She tuned in, "—believe he said that, and to his own head of house too!"

"I can't believe Snape didn't take points," said Ron.

"I can't believe he didn't set him on fire, or something," said Harry, "Did you see Snape's eyes? Bloody murder."

"Wonder what he's gonna do with him."

"What do you mean," interjected Hermione. "He'll do the same thing as all the other teachers, wont he?"

Harry and Ron looked at her like she was an idiot. "Um, other teachers, _normal _teachers, give detentions and take points, even to their own house."

"Especially to their own house when students talk to them like that," said Harry.

"Yeah, not Snape though. Snape's a torturer."

"One time, Ernie Macmillan had _one_ detention with Snape, could use his hands for a month, not even Madam Pomfrey could fix him."

"What's Snape do to him?" asked Hermione, worriedly.

"He had him separating scorpion stingers, _bare handed!"_

"Surely he wouldn't be allowed to do that!" cried Hermione, "Perhaps Ernie got one inside his dragon hide gloves, by accident."

"Snape told him he couldn't bring his gloves, and he only had an hour to sort a _whole_ cauldron, so he didn't have much time to be careful."

Just then, Hermione doubled over. Her face landed in her food and she began to twitch. She blacked out.

When she woke up Ronald was holding her hand. She turned her head and looked at him groggily. He let her go so fast you would think he had been burned. "Where am I," she slurred. He looked uncomfortable and looked over his shoulder again. "Erm, you're in the hospital wing. We were talking about Snape and you had some sort of fit. And then you fainted." He checked over his shoulder again.

"Where's 'Arry?"

"Harry, oh he's in Dumbledore's office."

Hermione woke up, "What? Dumbledore's office! Why? Is he ok?"

"What? Yeah, Harry's fine. I reckon there just talkin about you know who again. And lay back down," He added, "don't hurt yourself."

"Oh relax Ron, I feel fine."

"Still, Madam Pomfrey said not to upset you and she scares me, so lay back down, ok?" for the fifth time he checked over his shoulder.

"Who are you looking for?"

"Oh, erm, no one," he said, unconvincingly.

"Honestly, Ron, I know you looking for someone." She craned her head around trying to see past him.

"It's no one, really," he said moving to block her view.

"I know your lying," she sat up and looked around him, and right there, leaning against the wall, was Malfoy.

She tried to cover her shock, "Malfoy what are you doing here?"

He didn't say anything. "What's wrong with him?" she whispered to Ron. "I don't know but he's freaking me out. He's been there for hours." _Oh no! _thought Hermione, _it has to be the spell lock I put on him. _Hermione had set it up so that if she ever was in a position where she had no control, he would remain under the enchantment. She had not realized that it would be quite to this affect though.

"Ron where's my wand?" he picked it up an handed it to her from the table next to her cot. "Thanks." She pretended to be inspecting it, but in her head she said, _Malfoy, go back to wherever you are supposed to be. Speak only when spoken to, act as normal, and under no circumstances are you to mention me, or the Imperius curse, or in any way give hint that you are not under your own control._ He left.

She kept looking at her wand until he was long gone and then looked up and said, as if in surprise, "Oh! He's gone," when Ron turned his head around to look she quickly put her wand back down.

_I'm not comfortable giving him so much freedom, but I think my instructions were clear enough that I should have to worry._ Still, she would be keeping an eye on him at all times.

Just then, Madam Pomfrey came scurrying out from her office and, upon seeing Hermione awake, rushed over. As she did diagnostics and checked her nerves, _or whatever it is she does_, Hermione asked a question. "Madam Pomfrey, am I sick or something?" she asked. She knew what had happened, that Malfoy had been right, but it would have looked odd for her to have not asked. "No dear, you're perfectly alright," she said in a baffled voice. She clearly could not tell what was wrong with Hermione, "of course, I should like to keep you in the Hospital wing over night, just to be sure." Hermione jumped at that, "No!" then, more calmly, "No, I don't want to miss any more schoolwork than I already have, thank you." "Alright then, but please come and see me if you feel at all strange," she said, sounding displeased.

_Now let's see what happened in Snape's office._ Thought Hermione as she walked out of the Hospital wing. She prepared to dive into Draco Malfoy's mind for the second time.

* * *

I would like to remind this peron called Dkerr of two things:

1. This site is called FANFICTION! The entire point is to make charcahters to do things out of charachter following the orginal ideas of the original novels.

2. Don't read a story if you dont like it, and don't review telling the author that you dont like it because they (I) don't give a shit.

Ps. I kindly request that **YOU DONT WASTE MY FUCKIN' TIME AGAIN!**

_Thank you._


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven:

Hermione gently coaxed herself into Draco's seething mind. She knew he desperately wanted to say _I told you so_ but she wouldn't let him. What struck her most was that he was so blasé about it. He thought with an, "I just got tortured and I don't care!" attitude. It was mildly disturbing, and scared Hermione to know that this actually _was_ a regular thing for the Slytherins. She remembered her own reaction to the Cruciatus Curse with a shudder. _ I had no idea he would ever do that, especially in Hogwarts surrounded by other teachers, and Dumbledore!_ She wouldn't be surprised if he did it out the school to adults but students! Still, she had seen the evidence for herself. _Or rather _felt_ the evidence for myself._ She couldn't get over it.

She sat down in one of the comfy arm chairs around the fire in the common room. She put a book in her lap so it would look more natural then prepared to immerse herself into the memory of what happened in Snape's office. She had already found the memory; she had just wanted to wait until she was sitting down before entering it. She was disconcerted as she found herself feeling to be _physically_ present in the office with Snape and Malfoy. Neither of them noticed her however, _Its exactly like how Harry described being in the Pensieve_, thought Hermione excitedly. What happened next, however, killed that excitement right off. As Draco stood tensely, Snape pulled out his wand and muttered the curse, breaking the complete quiet in the room. Hermione flinched but felt no pain as Draco dropped to the floor, screaming. Snape brandished the wand across him again and that seemed to intensify Draco's pain.

It only lasted a minute but Hermione would bet it had felt like hours for him. When Snape ended the curse and walked out Draco continued to lay on the ground and just gasped for at least ten minutes. He stood up, wincing, and staggered out. Hermione chose not to follow him but instead pulled out of the memory for she knew that he was headed to the Hospital Wing, to wait for her.

She peeled back the mental barriers she had set in place for Draco and allowed him to contact her mind. To her surprise, and fear, he not only wasn't angry, but he wouldn't contact her. This shocked her more than anything because he never missed an opportunity to yell at her, or tease her, or threaten her. She dug a little bit further past the area where Draco usually was and tentatively poke around the area where their consciousnesses met. She found him and was in the process of trying to contact him when he lashed out. His consciousness hit hers with the force and speed of a whiplash, striking deep into her thoughts like a barb. She shoved her mental barriers back up around her and quickly pulled out of their joint psyche. She lay their shivering and shaking on the soft red armchair. She was shivering and shaking, and her clothes were drenched in sweat. The fire had burnt low and the book had slipped out of her lap.

Anger more than anything set her determination. _Tomorrow_, she thought passionately. She climbed upstairs and went to bed.

.

As Hermione walked out of the Great Hall, ready to head to Arithmacy, Draco Malfoy, much to the surprise of _everyone_ watching strode up beside her, and put his arm around her waist. Hermione did her best to keep from blushing, or throwing his arm off, and instead focused on the hallway directly in front of her face. They were the only ones moving as everyone else in the vicinity had frozen in place, dropped their jaws and stared at the two people walking down the corridor. A couple of people had even dropped their things, and the clamor of books hitting the floor was the _only_ sound made. Hermione thought she might die.

When they finally reached Professor Vector's classroom, after what seemed like hours, they stepped into what Hermione hoped would be a haven from the stares and gasps. She was quite wrong, even Professor Vector gasped, although he regained his composure much more quickly than the rest of the class. "Settle down, everyone, settle down," although no one was talking, _or moving. Or breathing._ Hermione had known it would be like this but this much attention positively terrified her. At least she and Malfoy were the only Slytherin and Gryffindor in this class, the rest were Ravenclaws, _although they seem more then plenty shocked, _thought Hermione.

She usually sat by herself at a table right in the front of the room, but not in the mood to be ogled all through class, she sat in the very back table and put Malfoy beside her. She had begun calling him Malfoy again because she blamed him for this in its entirety, even though absolutely none of them could have been his fault. Students were yelled at constantly throughout the lesson, even though the professor kept glancing back at them himself. Hermione couldn't focus on the lesson at all and didn't even mind the waste of an hour, because of how she feared the rest of the day would go.

She feared right, Arithmacy and Muggle Studies had been bad enough, and Malfoy didn't even take muggle studies. _But next is Potions_, thought Hermione with dread, _Slytherins, Harry, Ron, Malfoy, and Snape all in one class_. Hermione was terrified. Harry would be pissed, but he wouldn't do anything rash. Ron, however, would go ballistic. He would probably try to kill everyone in sight, starting with Malfoy and ending with himself and Hermione. _And I can't even tell them why!_ Thought Hermione frustrated, tears welling in her eyes.

She decided to do what all teenagers do best, something Hermione had never _ever_ done before in her entire life. She avoided her problem.

She and Malfoy sat in the every back of the room in every class they had together. At the end of the day she walked straight into her room, turned off the light, and went to bed. At lunch every day she would do her homework in the far off corners of the library, huddled and alone. She would not spend any more time with Malfoy than she needed to. She would always have him on standby though, in case someone were to see her and wonder where he is. She allowed him to do his homework, she would not be responsible for his failure, and she let him go down to the kitchens and eat. She herself, had begun to find food immensely distasteful and had found a potion that she thought substituted for it nicely. She had taken a leaf out of Moody's book and had a hip flask full of her energy potion with her at all times. It took the edge off her hunger so she was virtually the same. She didn't notice she was losing weight, she didn't notice that she was struggling to lift even the meanest of books in the library. She thought she was perfectly happy and healthy by herself. She wasn't.

Just a week before Christmas break, a time Hermione was looking forward to because there would be so few students remaining at Hogwarts and she'd be able to eat when she wanted and hang out in the common room again. Sadly she couldn't do that.

On the Thursday before Christmas weekend, in Muggle Studies, Hermione had just taken a sip of her potion and leaned over to write down something Professor Burbage said, and feinted.

No one noticed she fell until her head hit the ground with an echoing _crack!_

**Starting next chapter I will incorporate your names in. And to Claudia Harris, your character will have a real role in the story because of all your Reviews!**

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